While Microsoft is developing Windows 8, Apple is also developing its latest iteration of Mac OS X, Lion. Arriving via the Software Update tool, Developer Preview 3 brings several changes, including a new logon animation, additional desktop images and the implementation of several new features.

As Apple strives to improve user experiences, one particular feature that is of interest is Mission Control. According to Apple, Mission Control:

"is a powerful and handy new feature that provides you with a comprehensive look at what’s running on your Mac. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything — including Dashboard and full-screen apps — all in one place. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to Mission Control. There you can see your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full-screen apps, and Dashboard, arranged in a unified view."

From a video posted on Youtube by Apple, this looks to be a very useful virtual desktop manager, nicely showing what exactly is running. This effectively combining Exposé, Dashboard, and Spaces accessed by either a gesture, or a hotkey. Also included in is Reading View, a component of Safari, providing an easy way to mark websites to read later, according to macrumors.com.

According to macstories.net, to install Developer Preview 3, you will need to install all previous developer updates, and have at least 8GB of free disk space (after the 1GB update download). If you'd like to see a full list of changes, and additional screenshots, itsalltech.com has an excellent breakdown (and a link to download the new desktop backgrounds).